Online grooming of minors in the criminal legislation of the Republic of Armenia and foreign countries: the downside of digitalization processes

The purpose of the research. The protection of the sexual integrity of minors is the most important task of criminal legislation, which should be continuous, since the earlier onset of sexual activity of the latter is a direct threat to their moral, mental and physical development. Unfortunately, there is currently an increase in the number of attacks on the sexual integrity of minors, which is becoming most favorable, in particular, in the context of their commission in the digital space, which also increases their latency. Online grooming of minors, which once seemed far away and impossible, is a reality of today, a negative, socially dangerous phenomenon that requires an adequate response from the state. For the first time, criminal liability for grooming is provided for in the new Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia dated 05.05.2021 (entered into force on 07.01.2022). At the same time, this norm presents significant difficulties in law enforcement practice in connection with establishing the content of the objective side, as well as proving the subjective side of the crime under investigation. Conclusions. As a result of the conducted research, the author comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to review the grooming sanction, believing that the current approach of the Armenian legislator is excessively liberal and does not fully allow achieving proportionality between the degree of public danger of the act and its punishability. At the same time, in order to facilitate the task of the law enforcement officer and ensure uniformity of law enforcement practice, it is proposed to specify the range of acts that form the objective side of the analyzed corpus delicti.